We've been here before! Last time I wrote about repairs to a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT, Data East, 1991), I was discussing a restoration I performed for a customer. This machine was a little different. I bought it after doing some repairs for its previous owner. They decided to move and didn't want to move the game with them, so they sold it to me instead. ​It's a weird experience to start repairing a game for somebody and then finish repairing it for yourself. Suddenly you're not constrained by time frames or repair budgets, and you can really take the time to make sure the game is playing as well as it can be. You can also take the time to make any improvements or modifications that you want. And with all of the extra features I planned to install, I needed a lot more time than most people can justify in a regular service call. But what "extra features" am I referring to?

Boy, we sure are suckers for punishment. Exactly a week after Pinfest, Fiona and I are on the road again to Oz Comic Con 2024, one of the biggest pop culture shows in Australia. This year it is being held at Sydney Showground, and we're bringing three pinball machines (and a couple of retro gaming consoles!) to the Retro Gaming area for con patrons to enjoy. I haven't participated in such a large show before, and it's certainly a huge effort to keep carting games around so soon after Pinfest 2024. So, why do we do this? It's my hope that by bringing pinball machines to large events such as this, more and more people will discover, or rediscover, the joy of the silver ball and become involved in pinball as a hobby. My role as a "pinball evangelist" is to keep the pinball dream alive, and giving the general public more opportunities to play pinball is the best way to do this. 

This restoration was for a customer who had just come into possession of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Data East, 1991) pinball machine from a family member who originally wanted to sell it. Luckily, he convinced them not to sell it and instead get it restored. Of course, I was happy to help, and was keen to get some more experience with Data East machines. Early 90s Data East machines are generally not known for their fantastic gameplay, but the games are simple and fun, which is all that was really needed in an arcade in the 1990s.